A whole lot of -mediacies and -mediations!

Remediation is the appropriation of one medium, or of content or characteristics of one medium, by another medium. Remediation echoes the myth of the inherent link between technology and progress, and furthers this notion by suggesting a connotation of healing or curing. Bolter and Grusin trace the word “remediation” back to its Latin root, remederi in order to solidify this link (59). We live in a forever imperfect world, according to our consumerist behaviors, but these consumer imperfections are different than those that we might point to consciously. Through our purchasing patterns, we insist that the technologies we currently use do not have the capabilities we need or want, do not best reflect ourselves, or do not allow us to create/work/organize/etc. to our fullest capabilities. As Bolter and Grusin suggest, however, we don’t “realize that the older medium [has] failed in its promise until the new one appears” (60).

As I understand it, hypermediation refers to the bombardment of media that makes media seem more real, which is the goal of all media according to the authors. This pursuit of realistic representation, of real technological experience and of experiencing reality through technological means, translates into, when done successfully, transparency of the employed medium. Transparent immediacy likewise strives for realism, working to pin down a mediated experience as the experience or a mediated object as the object, to define it, its existence, through a singular, transparent technological gaze. Hypermediacy, on the other hand, represents the technological glance, or multiple gazes from various points of view. Hypermediacy provides are more multifaceted interpretation of an experience or an object than does immediacy, and in that way is more real and at the same time, more obviously mediated.